I have been struck by my own reading choices lately (yes, I know they're my choices), simply because I have branched out a little and am reading things I wouldn't normally read. The Good Earth is on my Pulitzer list (though I'm not sure how it won the Pulitzer, since Pulitzer winners are supposed to be fiction that encompasses American life, and The Good Earth is about Chinese culture and set in China), and it's worth reading, especially if you have any interest in China.
The Black Dahlia is the first hard-boiled detective novel I've ever read (though I have tried to read The Maltese Falcon), and I am finding all of the background information quite cumbersome.
The Time Traveler's Wife (which I just finished) is certainly a worthy read, though you have to pay attention to which Henry is when. Sometimes I wish I were like Clare in the sense that she got to know so much before it happened, but then again, maybe that's too easy. Maybe she appealed to me because there is so much that I don't know, or maybe because she learned, in the end, to enjoy the Henry who was in front of her, no matter his stage in life.